aditya
19:33
YOJANA Magazine October 2022 ( Hindi ) PDF
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Monday, October 10, 2022
Daily Current Affairs, 10th October 2022
aditya
19:15
1) World Post Day 2022 celebrates on 9th October
•World Post Day is celebrated each year on 9 October, the anniversary of the establishment of the Universal Postal Union in 1874 in the Swiss Capital, Bern. This day celebrates the role of the post in people’s and businesses’ everyday lives. It was declared World Post Day by the UPU Congress held in Tokyo, Japan in 1969. Since then, countries across the world participate annually in the celebrations. The Posts in many countries use the event to introduce or promote new postal products and services.
World Post Day 2022: Theme
•The theme for World Post Day 2022 is ‘Post for Planet’. The Post is the world’s largest logistics network. Every year, more than 150 countries celebrate World Post Day in a variety of ways. In certain countries, World Post Day is observed as a working holiday.
2) World Mental Health Day 2022 Observed on 10 October
•World Mental Health Day is observed on October 10 every year. On this day, various programs are designed to draw attention to mental health issues and their effects on those affected and the lives of their caregivers. In India, World Mental Health Day is marked on the final day of the Mental Health Awareness Campaign Week campaign, launched last year by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
World Mental Health Day 2022: Theme
•The theme or rather the slogan for 2022’s celebration of World Mental health Day is “Make mental health & well-being for all a global priority.” World Health Organisation (WHO) mentions that before the COVID-19 pandemic, about one in eight people worldwide suffered from mental issues. Proper infrastructural and economic support for mental health, however, was lacking. The global pandemic raised mental stress for people all over the world. Lives were left permanently altered by the virus. Recent armed conflicts between nations and religious violence have added to this stress.
3) IREDA celebrates “Cyber Jaagrukta Diwas”
•To create cybersecurity awareness among all employees, Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency Ltd. (IREDA) observed the “Cyber Jaagrukta Diwas”. On this occasion, Shri Alok Kumar, Information Security Consultant, AKS IT Services, shared his insights with IREDA employees on the practice of cyber hygiene.
4) India-Australia Relations: From A Dull to The Forefront of International Partnerships
•India is one of Australia’s most important Indo-Pacific partners, with the relationship characterised by strong people-to-people links and close cooperation at all levels of government. The Australia-India relationship is at a high point, underpinned by the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership announced by Prime Ministers Morrison and Modi in June 2020, significant investments to bolster our economic ties announced as part of the India Economic Strategy Update, launched in March 2022, and the signing of the Australia-India Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement in April 2022.
5) ISRO’s Chandrayaan-2 spectrometer maps abundance of sodium on moon for first time
•Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter’s X-ray spectrometer ‘CLASS’ has mapped an abundance of sodium on the moon for the first time, as per the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). As Chandrayaan-1’s X-ray Fluorescence Spectrometer (C1XS) detected sodium from its characteristic line in X-rays, this opened up the possibility of mapping the amount of sodium on the Moon.
6) “Education 4.0 Report” 2022, released by the World Economic Forum (WEF)
•Titled Education 4.0 Report’, the report explains how technology can address learning gaps and make education accessible to all. The information was published under Education 4.0 India initiative, launched in May 2020 and has convened over 40 partners from the education technology, government, academic and start-up communities.
7) Financing Platform Launched by IFC in response to Global Food Crisis
•Financing Platform Launched by IFC: The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector investment arm of the World Bank, has introduced a new, $6 billion funding facility to boost the private sector’s capacity to respond to the Global Food crisis and aid in food production in response to mounting food insecurity. Rising levels of hunger and malnutrition (Global Food Crisis) have already been made worse by climate change and increasingly extreme weather events that are destroying harvests and lowering yields. The conflict in Ukraine and an unequal worldwide recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic have exacerbated to this trend.
8) Nobel Prize for Economics 2022: US trio, including former Fed Chairman Bernanke, wins
•Nobel Prize for Economics 2022: US Trio of Ben S. Bernanke, Douglas W. Diamond, and Philip H. Dybvig received the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences 2022 (Nobel Prize for Economics 2022) in Memory of Alfred Nobel “for research on banking and financial crises.” The prize money for the Nobel Prize for Economics 2022 total 10 million Swedish kronor, or roughly $900,000. They will be distributed on December 10.
9) Gross direct tax collection increases by over 23 % to Rs 8,98,000 crore in current financial year
•The gross direct tax collections has increased by over 23 per cent to eight lakh ninety eight thousand crore rupees in the current financial year as compared to last year. Finance Ministry said, the provisional figures of direct tax collections still continue to register steady growth.
The HINDU Notes – 10th October 2022
aditya
14:16
📰 Peace, Prize, politics
The Nobel can strengthen the voices of peace and human rights globally
•By choosing a Belarusian human rights campaigner and two civil liberty-focused organisations from Ukraine and Russia for this year’s Nobel Prize for Peace, the Norwegian Committee has once again offered its redoubtable support for voices that are critical of the authoritarianism and militarism of Moscow and its allies. This is the second year in a row that Russians who demand accountability and respect for human rights from authorities have been chosen for the Prize. In 2021, Dmitry Muratov, editor-in-chief of the Russian Novaya Gazeta, one of the few independent newspapers in Vladimir Putin’s Russia, was a co-winner of the Prize for his “efforts to safeguard freedom of expression”. This year, Memorial, an organisation that has been documenting alleged state abuses in Russia since 1987, shared the Prize with Ales Bialiatski, the Belarusian activist, and the Center for Civil Liberties (CCL) in Ukraine. Memorial is one of the few independent NGOs in Russia that continue to demand accountability from the country’s rulers. It has a database of both the victims and perpetrators of state abuses that date back to the Stalin era. Mr. Bialiatski, who is the founder of the rights group called Viasna (Spring), has been campaigning for democracy in Belarus since the 1980s. The CCL, which was founded to promote democracy in Ukraine, is known for documenting Russia’s alleged war crimes in Ukraine.
•Of the three recipients, Mr. Bialiatski and Memorial continue to face the wrath of the state. Mr. Bialiatski was jailed from 2011 to 2014 by the regime of Aleksandr Lukashenko. When street protests broke out across the country in 2020 after the disputed presidential election in which Mr. Lukashenko “won” a sixth term, authorities arrested Mr. Bialiatski again. He is currently in jail without trial. Memorial, founded in the Soviet Union’s internal reform period, has had several run-ins with the Putin administration. Last year, the NGO was disbanded by a Moscow court and last week, a judge ruled in favour of the seizure of the organisation’s office by the authorities. CCL, founded in 2007, rose to prominence in Ukraine’s 2014 pro-western Maidan protests that brought down the pro-Russian government of Viktor Yanukovych. Since the February 24 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the CCL has been documenting Russia’s alleged atrocities. The Peace Prize has often been criticised as a political award shorn of credibility, but it could strengthen the voices of peace and human rights globally.
📰 Status beyond faith
The panel on giving SC status to converts has its work cut out
•The Centre has appointed a three-member Commission to examine the sensitive issue of extending Scheduled Caste (SC) status to all those who have historically suffered discrimination and untouchability, regardless of the religion they now profess. It is a task fraught with difficulty for the panel headed by former Chief Justice of India, K. G. Balakrishnan, as it will have to grapple with both social realities and ideological objections while addressing the core question. The government itself has described it as a seminal and historically complex sociological and constitutional question. This is not the first time that the issue has come up before the Supreme Court — the panel’s appointment comes in the wake of the Court asking the Centre to clarify its position on the issue — or has been examined by a commission headed by a former Chief Justice. In 1985, the Supreme Court agreed that historical discrimination may continue even after members of the SCs convert to other religions, but did not decide in favour of such converts being given SC status as it felt there was not enough material outlining their condition after conversion. It is to be welcomed that the Balakrishnan Commission has been asked specifically to examine the changes that Dalits go through after conversion in terms of their social status and the discrimination they may face, along with the implications of according them SC status.
•The National Commission for Religious and Linguistic Minorities, headed by retired Chief Justice Ranganath Mishra, also examined this issue. In its 2007 report, the panel made a categorical recommendation in favour of giving SC status to Dalits belonging to all religions. It found the caste system to be “an all-pervading social phenomenon in India shared by almost all Indian communities”. It stressed the constitutional need to eliminate the religion-based discrimination underlying the present policy of limiting SC status to those professing Hinduism, Sikhism and Buddhism. While the tenets of a religion may not allow discrimination, the ground reality was different, it said. The main counter-views are well-known: discrimination and deprivation being the consequences of the caste-based Hindu social order, SC status should not be extended to those who have converted to Christianity and Islam; and the benefits involved may be seen as an incentive to mass conversion. Another objection is that the share of the reservation pie available to Dalits among Hindus may shrink if new sections are included. There is no ‘creamy layer’ concept for SC reservation, and expanding its scope may be to the disadvantage of the current beneficiaries. The Commission will have to come up with a definitive study of these complex issues.
📰 The coalition of the world
•The League of Nations, set up in 1920, was the first intergovernmental organisation with the aim to promote international cooperation and outlived its utility with World War II. The United Nations claims to be the one place where all the world’s nations can discuss common problems and find shared solutions that benefit all of humanity. Now, 75 years later, rising conflict situations suggest it is time to go back to first principles of the Charter.
•The United Nations Secretary General (UNSG), António Guterres, made a candid assessment of global governance. He addressed the United Nations General Assembly and said the “world is in big trouble”, “gridlocked in colossal global dysfunction”, even the “G20 is in the trap of geopolitical divides”. “In a splintering world, we need to create mechanisms of dialogue to heal divides” and “only by acting as one, we can nurture fragile shoots of hope” for a “coalition of the world”. This is a call for fresh thinking.
•India’s Presidency of the Group of 20, UN Security Council (UNSC) in 2022, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in 2023 when major powers are not even talking to each other and India alone, now the fifth largest economy, is interacting with each of them, presents a historic opportunity.
UN at a turning point
•The gridlock does not flow from bilateral relations but from the way international cooperation is being re-defined.
•First, multilateralism is under challenge even by its proponent, with the United States opting for partnerships, with the most important areas being the worst affected. The G7 Summit, held in June, endorsed the goals of a cooperative international Climate Club to accelerate climate action outside the UN. The dispute settlement mechanism of the WTO without the quorum of its members has rendered the institution dysfunctional. Despite the G7 having accepted the need for transfer of funds at Rio in 1992, because of their role in creating the climate crisis, the promise made in 2009 to provide at least $100 billion per year in climate finance remains unfulfilled.
•Second, China has opted for rival set of multilateral institutions. China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) seeks to achieve policy, infrastructure, trade, financial, and people-to-people connectivity by building a new platform for international cooperation to create “new drivers of shared development”, and covers half the world population with one-third the GDP and investment of $930 billion. China’s Global Development Initiative, 2021, and linked Global Security Initiative, 2022, is developing a conceptual frame responding to an urbanising world, i.e. digital governance and non-traditional security, which the international system has not covered.
•Third, more significant than the clash of institutions reflecting the deepening divide between the Atlantic powers and the Russia-China combine is the diffusion of wealth, technology and power. The ‘rest’, despite threats, are now capable of not taking sides and are looking for leadership within the United Nations, for what the UNSG characterised as “coalition of the world”.
•India will chair the Security Council in December, and will have the Presidency of the G20 and the SCO.
‘Vasudhaiva kutumbakam’
•Strategists in major powers see the world in binary terms around rules. In a multipolar world, the question is the kind of rules needed for human wellbeing and whether principles would serve the purpose better.
•Second, the time is ripe for a ‘big idea’ that both keeps away from the current multilateral focus on global rules, amount of aid and inviolability of IPR’s as well as recognises a role for competing institutions as countries can now secure the best terms themselves without bargaining.
•Third, just as the ‘Rio principles’ continue to guide climate change, vasudhaiva kutumbakam, or ‘world as one family’, focusing on comparable levels of wellbeing can be the core of a set of universal socio-economic principles for a dialogue between the states.
•Fourth, to the current global consensus around equitable sustainable development, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has added a clearer societal purpose to flesh out a universal civilisational principle. He emphasised ‘Lifestyle for Environment’ seeing climate change as a societal process and combating it devoid of trade-offs characteristic of the Climate Treaty. He has also offered India’s payments and linked digital ID technology without IPR restrictions.
•Fifth, redefining ‘common concerns’ in terms of felt needs of the majority rather than interests and concerns of the powerful will shift the focus of a much slimmed down United Nations squarely to human wellbeing, and not as an add-on.
•India’s Presidential statement could introduce ‘vasudhaiva kutumbakam’ in the UNSC in December. The SCO Summit will precede the G20 Summit and acceptance of overarching principles will support acceptance by the wider G20.
📰 The fate of chips will determine the fate of nations
•A human hair is 50-180 microns whereas the novel coronavirus is 0.1-0.5 microns. In comparison, today’s most advanced chips are about half the size of the novel coronavirus in diameter and are shrinking rapidly. The fate of nations depends on this infinitesimally small piece of silicon, which can devastate and shape our lives in myriad ways.
Dependence on chips
•Let us consider three different scenarios. First, Apple’s new A16 chip has over 16 billion transistors in it. And Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the world’s leading manufacturer of chips, placed over one quintillion (that’s 1 followed by 18 zeros) transistors on just the iPhone chip. Every message we send, every picture we take, every call we make depends on one chip or the other.
•Apple buys its chips from Cirrus Logic, Kioxia, Skywords and TSMC. It designs these in-house, and the super complex processes that run the iPhone operating system makes Apple a force of nature. But even a trillion-dollar company like Apple is not able to manufacture its own chips. A16 is made by a single company, in a single building called Building 18 in Taipei. TSMC’s fab is perhaps the world’s most expensive and valuable factory. Chips today are manufactured in just a handful of nations: Taiwan, South Korea, the U.S., Japan, the Netherlands, and China.
•Second, Russia appears to be unable to dominate Ukraine in the war, one of the reasons being that it is using more brawn than brain. Ukraine is using precision-guided missiles to fight Russia, which it recently procured from its Western allies. These missiles are powered by chips. While Russia has some precision-guided missiles, it is unable to manufacture these at the scale required because of Western trade sanctions. Whatever Russia has is a combination of some chips stolen, some made indigenously and some imported in the past, claim Ukraine and U.S. officials. The U.S. government’s famous Entity List ensures that this technology does not reach China and Russia and they cannot get ahead in the chips race.
•Third, earlier this year, Toyota temporarily shut down production at assembly lines at five domestic group plants in Japan due to the shortage of chips. If you want to buy a new car in the U.S., the waiting time is really long.
•What is common in these scenarios is the importance of chips. Not just the ability to manufacture chips, but also the ability to integrate and synthesise them into complex systems will determine the fate of nations in the coming decades. Today, critical sectors such as defence, telecom, electronics and mobility are hugely impacted by the chip shortage, which won’t end until 2023, as per research studies. If there ever is a natural disaster in South Korea or Taiwan, it could only worsen the crisis. The U.S., European Union, Japan, India and China have poured in about $200 billion into the semiconductors sector, but the impact of that will not be seen now. The U.S. was ready to defend Taiwan should there be aggression from China probably because no country in the world has the capability to produce chips better and faster than Taiwan (and South Korea) does.
‘Don’t be Foxconned’
•While India has taken a visionary step to subsidise chip manufacturing through the Production-Linked Incentive scheme, there is one cautionary tale that it must bear in mind as it chases global chip manufacturers. It is called ‘Don’t be Foxconned’. Like Brazil and Vietnam in the past, in June 2018, Racine County in Wisconsin in the U.S. was led up the proverbial garden path by Terry Gou, Chairman of Foxconn, along with U.S. President Donald Trump and Governor Scott Walker. Mr. Gou secured around $5 billion in subsidies and promised thousands of jobs and the world’s best LCD manufacturing plant. But everything remained on paper. Despite uprooting people from their homes to build a new factory, not one chip or LCD panel ever got built there. Mr. Trump even called the Wisconsin Valley Science and Technology Park the eighth wonder of the world. A manufacturing facility in the municipal records, its designation was quietly changed last month to ‘storage facility’.
•Indian States, which are competing to court chip manufacturing investments, must also bear in mind that steady electricity and billions of gallons of clean water are required to set up a chip unit, which none of them can offer today. Even LCD panel manufacturing is a dream for the future. For example, the proposed Racine plant required about seven million gallons of water per day, which was being called a violation of the Great Lakes Compact by environmentalists. Chips manufacturing will require even more. India will get there with prudent strategies and sensible leadership in the coming decade, if all goes well.
•A chip manufacturing plant costs $15 billion-$20 billion which takes years to recoup profitably even if it is runs all year. With global supply chains in turmoil thanks to COVID-19 and the Ukraine war, the game of chips is even more complicated now. Every major economic superpower is using its money and its best minds to win this silicon battle. This will impact the lives of citizens in more ways than one. India can afford to lose this war only at its own peril.
📰 Why India Inc. is not taking a Hanuman leap
•In a meeting held with the country’s corporate leaders on September 15, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman drew attention to an important aspect of the economy today. She rightly flagged concerns about sluggish corporate investment, despite the government’s business-friendly stance, including a reduction in the corporate tax. The reduction, effected in 2019, lowered the rate for existing companies to 22% from 30% and for new manufacturing companies to 15% from 25%. However, the corporate investment rate, i.e., investment as a share of the national income, has barely budged. Ms. Sitharaman challenged corporate leaders to invest, asking rhetorically whether, like Hanuman in the Ramayana, they needed to be reminded of their inborn strength. The analogy is mismatched, though. For, while Hanuman was so devoted to Lord Rama that he was ready to risk his life serving him, private firms are driven by profit expectations. Managers are averse to risk, and unlikely to rush to invest based on exhortation from a Minister if they do not anticipate enough profits. Private investment accounts for close to 75% of total capital formation in the economy; its revival therefore is essential for sustained growth of the economy.
Decline of private capital formation
•The Narendra Modi government’s first pronouncements in 2014 had conveyed that it desired a shift away from a state-driven model of economic development. This much was apparent in its slogan ‘minimum government’. If this was to be, the private sector would take the lead in driving the economy. Mr. Modi had a reputation as a business-friendly Chief Minister of Gujarat. Upon reaching Delhi, he emphasised that his government would improve the ease of doing business in India. This by itself is a worthy objective, as anyone familiar with the working of the regulatory apparatus in India would agree.
•As private capital formation last peaked in 2011–12, its decline is something that the present government inherited. However, it has had no success in turning it around. Though it has not allowed public investment to slip, that has not been enough under the circumstances. Either ideological predilection regarding the size of the government or the straitjacket imposed by the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act have held back the government from expanding it. We can see with hindsight that the government misread the situation prevailing when it came to power, and thus failed to recognise its own role at that moment.
•So, what was the state of the economy then? The boom had ended by 2008, and the economy was held up only by former Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s stimulus. When Mr. Modi arrived at the Centre, the upsurge in public investment had long since ended and agricultural growth had become erratic. In fact, in the first two years of his prime ministership, agriculture did not grow at all. Finally, with the global financial crisis and the slowing of the world economy, export growth declined. These added up to a slowing of the exogenous drivers of demand, and private investors could not but have seen that the situation was not likely to turn positive soon. Also, they would not necessarily have been enthused by the possibility that the ideology of ‘minimum government’ could end up putting public investment on hold, failing to expand aggregate demand when it was needed. So, based on the situation in 2014, India’s investors would have been fully rational in anticipating a not-so-rosy future for the economy unless some exogenous factors were to turn favourable, or the government were to act decisively to energise the situation through public investment. They would have seen that demonetisation, with the attendant digitisation, and the roll out of the GST could not have done much for the growth of demand.
Stepping up public investment
•The one lever that the government could have pulled as it watched private investment decline was to step up public investment. It refused to do this for its first six years in office. Only ideological blinkers combined with the hubris that there is nothing to be learned from history can explain this inaction. Since 1947, every turning point of growth in India was preceded by a significant shift upward of the public investment rate. This includes the growth accelerations of the 1950s, the late 1970s, and the early 2000s and the downturns of the mid-1960s as well as the one that followed the 2008 global financial crisis. It suggests that crowding in, rather than crowding out, characterises the relationship between public and private capital formation in India.
•While the Modi government has for long nursed an aversion to the government playing a role in capital formation, the experience during the pandemic seems to have brought about a change of mind. The Union Budget of 2022 was defined by a historic increase in the allocation for capital spending. This could have a positive effect on private investment, but past experience suggests that it could take time to play out. So, the expansion in public investment may have to be sustained for sufficiently long. Even the fiscally conservative International Monetary Fund has suggested that public investment can play the role of an engine of growth for the developing economies. The sustained growth needed to kindle private investment may require that the current public investment thrust be sustained for at least half a decade. However, two aspects would remain crucial even if the government were to find the will to maintain its current pace. One, it is important to choose the right projects. The investment must be focused on productivity-enhancing infrastructure. Here, some tied transfer of funds to the States would be desirable, as they are better placed to identify such investment. Two, inflation can derail a high public investment programme due to the disaffection it generates. Its control would require a step-up in the growth of agricultural produce other than the superior cereals. In fact, this should be seen as an opportunity to end India’s import dependence on edible oils and the persisting shortfall in the supply of vegetables. It is by now clear that the Reserve Bank of India does not have what it takes to control inflation, and only a supply-side thrust can permanently end food inflation.
•Though this government may have inherited the sluggish private investment, it must reflect upon whether its own actions may have adversely affected the investment climate. Could the significant step-up in raids by the Enforcement Directorate and the Income Tax Department have had a chilling effect? Could the unreasonable stringency that governs the financial transactions of even not-for-profit organisations have stifled the legitimate economic activity that they give rise to? Could it be that the economy’s goose is being cooked by a surveillance state?
📰 The programming languages running the crypto- economy
Smart contracts, which let you execute automated actions on blockchains, are the backbone of the crypto-industry. To create them effectively, programming languages are a must
•Crypto exchanges often rely on smart contracts to run smoothly. A smart contract failure can cause platform outages, and exploitation of the codes could devalue the entire ecosystem. Programming languages help crypto platforms and protocols run effectively.
•C++ is a programming language associated with Bitcoin. It is also one of the most used programming languages, playing a role in the development of operating systems, gaming devices and platforms, search engines, and even machine learning.
•Rust has the unique distinction of being called the “perfect programming language” in 2021 by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey. However, developers have complained that Rust is too difficult to learn.
•The crypto ecosystem sits on top of distributed ledgers, which are broadly called blockchains. Apart from recording and verifying transactions, some crypto blockchains like Ethereum let users launch agreements or special actions that execute on their own. These are known as smart contracts and to create them effectively, programming languages are a must.
The importance of programming
•Crypto exchanges, decentralised apps, the automated buying or selling of orders, and even NFT-based games often rely on smart contracts to run smoothly. A smart contract failure can cause platform outages, and exploitation of the codes could devalue the entire ecosystem. Programming languages thus, help crypto platforms and protocols run effectively.
•C++ is a programming language commonly associated with Bitcoin. While the Bitcoin whitepaper explaining the peer-to-peer electronic cash system is written largely in English, the Bitcoin Core software, which makes transactions possible, uses C++. It is maintained by a community anyone can join by running Bitcoin Core full nodes. It is hailed for being an accessible programming language that users of Java, C, and C# can easily learn due to existing similarities. It is also one of the most used programming languages, playing a role in the development of operating systems like MacOS and Windows, gaming devices, search engines, and even machine learning. C++ is a major influence for many other programming languages in use today. However, some see C++ as an outdated programme. Mark Russinovich, Microsoft Azure’s CTO, recently asked developers to stop using C and C++.
Solidity, Rusk and Haskell
•Solidity is the programming language mainly used on the blockchain platform Ethereum. Some of its developers are Ethereum co-founders. The language is influenced by C++, Python, and JavaScript. It is also known as a ‘curly bracket language’ as it uses the flower bracket special character. In recent times, with the Ethereum transition to a proof-of-stake model, programming skill in Solidity is expected to be in high demand. Parts of the Ethereum ecosystem also support several other programming languages such as Python, Ruby, Rust, Java, and more.
•Rust has the unique distinction of being called the “perfect programming language” in 2021 by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey. Come 2022, Mr. Dorsey noted that Rust was a “close second” to C. In the crypto world, Rust is commonly associated with the Solana blockchain, which is known for its high speeds and relatively low transaction fees. The Polkadot blockchain, which helps to better connect blockchains with each other, also uses Rust. However, developers have complained that Rust is too difficult to learn. A 2018 survey showed that more than 22% of users did not feel productive using the programming language.
•Some of the most valuable blockchain projects in the crypto industry don’t necessarily rely on the most popular programming languages. Cardano, for example, is a blockchain that takes pride in its academic rigour and scholarly approach to the crypto sector. Its smart contract programming language is based on Haskell. The Cardano Foundation itself admits that Haskell is not well-known, and that it is not a popular programming language for beginners. Haskell is classified as a purely functional programming language, and is hard to learn. But it is said to be well-suited to deliver accurate crypto projects due to its immutability feature.
📰 The action plan against Delhi’s air pollution
Sunday, October 09, 2022
Kurukshetra Magazine October 2022 ( English ) PDF
aditya
07:57
Kurukshetra Magazine October 2022 ( English ) PDF
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Saturday, October 08, 2022
Daily Current Affairs, 08th October 2022
aditya
18:49
1) Indian Air Force celebrates its raising day on 8th October
•Indian Air Force was raised on October 8, 1932, and it is completing 90 years today. The day and its observance is a matter of pride for Indians and inspire a patriotic zeal among the citizenry for the air arm of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Commander-in-chief of the IAF. This time Air Force Day flypast is scheduled to take place over Sukhna Lake in Chandigarh this afternoon.
2) World Migratory Bird Day 2022 celebrates on 8th October
•Since its creation in 2006, World Migratory Bird Day has been commemorated twice a year. It is supposed to be celebrated on the second Saturday of May and the second Saturday of October. This year, it was previously celebrated on 14 May and for the second time, the world marks this day again today, 8 October. At least 4,000 different bird species travel long distances, making up about 40% of the world’s bird population. The purpose of World Migratory Bird Day is to increase public awareness on the issues migrating birds encounter, their ecological importance, and the need for global cooperation to safeguard them. They migrate in search of food. Twice a year, these birds spend the winter in warmer regions before coming home to reproduce.
3) 5th Assembly of International Solar Alliance to be held in New Delhi
•5th Assembly of International Solar Alliance: The curtain raiser for the 5th Assembly of International Solar Alliance and associated side activities, which will take place in New Delhi from October 17–20, 2022, was unveiled by Union Minister for Power and New and Renewable Energy RK Singh. According to the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, India currently holds the position of President of the International Solar Alliance (ISA) Assembly.
4) J&K Tourism department inaugurates Bird Festival at Pahalgam
•Jammu and Kashmir have inaugurated Bird Festival 2022 in Pahalgam in South Kashmir. It is a first-of-its-kind bird festival in the Union Territory. Jammu and Kashmir are all set to welcome tourists from all around the world for the Bird Festival 2022. The festival will be organized in collaboration with the Department of Tourism in the Sanctuary Foundation.
5) Cheetah Introduction Project Monitoring: Centre set up 9-member task force
•Cheetah Introduction Project Monitoring: The Center has established a Task Force to oversee the introduction of cheetahs in Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park and other suitably specified places. The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) would support the Cheetah Task Force’s operations and provide all essential assistance. Principal Secretaries of Madhya Pradesh’s Forests and Tourism, as well as Dr. Amit Mallick, Inspector General of the NTCA in New Delhi, will be among the task force’s nine members.
6) India-New Zealand Navies sign pact on White Shipping Information Exchange
•India-New Zealand Navies sign pact: The Royal New Zealand navy and the Indian navy have signed a contract on the exchange of White Shipping Information Exchange. Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral R. Hari Kumar and New Zealand Navy Chief Rear Admiral David Proctor signed the contract. In order to encourage more openness in the Maritime Domain, the agreement was signed.
7) World Bank slashes India’s economic growth forecast to 6.5% for FY23
•The World Bank cut its 2022-23 (FY23) real gross domestic product (GDP) growth forecast for India to 6.5%, from an earlier estimate of 7.5%, while warning that spillovers from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and global monetary tightening will weigh on the economic outlook.
8) EAM S Jaishankar launches book “Modi@20: Dreams Meet Delivery” in Auckland
•External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar participated in the New Zealand launch of the Book “Modi@20: Dreams Meet Delivery”. Jaishankar has authored one of the chapters of the book Modi@20: Dreams Meet Delivery which was launched on 11th May 2022. He also participated in the Kiwi Indian Hall of Fame Awards 2022.
The HINDU Notes – 08th October 2022
aditya
18:42
📰 The atrophy of the neo-Buddhist movement in India
•Every year in October, thousands of people assemble at Nagpur’s Deekshabhoomi to pay homage to B.R. Ambedkar and remember the historic day of October 14, 1956, when he and half a million of his followers embraced Buddhism. Ambedkar chose Buddhism after examining various religions to understand the suitability of each to liberate socially marginalised communities from the exploitative caste order. He found that Buddhism is rooted in India’s civilization, supplements modern ethical values and is averse to social hierarchies and patriarchal domination. Neo-Buddhism was proposed as a mass movement that would elevate former ‘Untouchables’ and help them achieve self-respect. He hoped that Buddhist principles would mobilise them into a robust community to battle the ruling Brahmanical elites.
Struggles of neo-Buddhism
•Neo-Buddhism emerged as a maverick phenomenon that offered strong psychological solace to the struggling Dalit masses. However, Ambedkar’s grand hopes remain unfulfilled. Today, the Buddhist population in India is one of the smallest minorities, its ideological challenge against the Hindu social order has not been taken seriously, and even within the Dalit community, conversion to Buddhism is not perceived as a suitable path to achieve social emancipation. Instead, it is the BJP that often fashions itself as the new torchbearer of Buddhist identity.
•A large majority (close to 80%) of Indian Buddhists resides in Maharashtra. The neo-Buddhists have established social and educational institutions, initiated cultural movements, and organised popular public festivals to make Buddhism a visible force in Maharashtra’s public sphere. However, it is mainly the Mahar caste and recently, smaller sections within the Matang and the Maratha castes which have identified themselves as neo-Buddhists. Other socially marginalised groups are still defined by Hindu caste nomenclatures and traditional occupations.
•The Dalit sociopolitical movements in States including Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka have also not promoted conversion to Buddhism. In U.P., during the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)’s regime, cultural symbols related to Buddhism, such as the Rashtriya Dalit Prerna Sthal and Green Garden, were erected in public spaces, but there was still hesitation in suggesting religious conversion as an alternative to fight the battle for social justice. Even in States where the Scheduled Caste population is relatively high, such as in Punjab, West Bengal and Odisha, Dalits have shown restraint in adopting Buddhism to challenge their social location.
•Importantly, India’s neighbouring Buddhist countries also have not identified neo-Buddhists as significant partners in their theological engagements. Several Buddhist countries have built their own pagodas and temples in Bodh Gaya and are more concerned with adding new sites in India’s Buddhist Circuit. Certain individuals and Buddhist associations from Japan, Thailand and the U.K. have established some close links with the neo-Buddhists of Maharashtra, but this is small support.
Appropriation by the right wing
•Interestingly, it is the Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre that has often presented itself as the promoter of Buddhist cultural heritage at the national and international levels. In overseas diplomatic gatherings, Mr. Modi has frequently invoked India’s ancient Buddhist identity, especially in China, Nepal, Myanmar and Japan. Mr. Modi has made a conscious effort to emphasise shared Buddhist heritage with these countries. He also visited Deekshabhoomi in 2017, paid rich tributes to Ambedkar and announced multiple developmental projects. It is his government that proposed a Buddhist Circuit.
•Theoretically, the neo-Buddhist movement is seen as an ideological and intellectual challenge to the dominant social and political ideas of the ruling elites. Interestingly, within the Hindutva discourse, Buddhism has been appropriated as an integral part of greater ‘Indic Civilization’ and the Buddhist conversion movement has not been seen as antithetical to the Hindu cultural pantheon. Further, Hindutva forces, using assertive cultural strategies, overtly appropriate crucial Dalit-Bahujan icons and underplay the fierce ideological antagonism that the early Dalit movement had against the Hindu social order.
•When right-wing forces are asserting their Hindu identity to build a monolithic majoritarian community, a popular deliberation on Ambedkar’s logic of conversion to Buddhism would have helped the Opposition, including the popular Dalit political class, to challenge such hegemonic appropriation. Independent cultural and religious strategies are crucial in building a challenge to the dominant narrative of Hindutva.
•However, the current Opposition lacks effective cultural strategies to challenge right-wing assertion. Instead, it still uses the same old formal electoral strategies, as we are seeing in Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s current Bharat Jodo Yatra. In this context, revisiting the ideals of Ambedkar’s neo-Buddhist movement can be helpful in building fierce ideological challenges to Hindutva’s understanding of history and culture.
📰 Panel to study SC status of Dalits post conversion
Yojana Magazine October 2022 ( English ) PDF
aditya
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Yojana Magazine October 2022 ( English ) PDF
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