The Hindu Editorial Analysis | 20th September ’21 | PDF Download

A spike | TH

• September 17 – a record 2.5 crore vaccine shots
• Equivalent of the populations of the whole of Australia, two-thirds of Canada and five times that of New Zealand
• China – 2.47 crore shots on a single day
• 62% Indian adults have now got at least one dose
• 1/5 fully inoculated
• Bharat Biotech was supposed to be supplying 6-7 crore doses a month from July-August and 10 crore doses a month from September, according to a Department of Biotechnology statement in April.
• This would mean at least 52 crore doses from July-December, of which 40 crore is to be supplied from September-December.
• Several cabinet Ministers, in summer, had boasted that India would inoculate its adult population (about 94 crore) by the year end.
• This will require over 185 crore doses, or close to one crore inoculations a day; India has now crossed the 80 crore mark.
• Daily coronavirus – 30,000/day
• Waning immunity
• Emergence of new variants

Huntington’s ghost | IE

• In a lecture last week, the Chief of Defence Staff, General Bipin Rawat, touched upon the idea of “clash of civilisations”, propounded at the end of the Cold War three decades ago by American political scientist, Samuel Huntington.
• Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s conversation with India’s External affairs minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar – margins of a regional summit in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.
• It is one thing to discuss these ideas in universities and think tanks and entirely another for policy makers to throw them around casually.
• Huntington argued that after the collapse of communism, the main international contradiction will be between different religious identities rather than nation-states.
• Although religious identity has indeed gained ground across different geographies, it has by no means become the main locus of international conflict.
• On the contrary religion has become a divisive force.
• In West Asia, the resurgence of Islamist ideology has only sharpened conflict among, and within, various Muslim societies.
• India’s military planners are right to focus on the two-front military problem that it confronts with China and Pakistan.
• But what brings China and Pakistan together is not some grand convergence between Confucianism and Islam, but a shared secular interest in keeping India down.
• China’s influence in West Asia is certainly growing as Rawat noted.
• But that is true of every region in the world — from Europe to the South Pacific, and from Africa to the Arctic.
• That is a consequence of China’s economic and military weight, and not the power of its civilisation.

Raids on Sonu Sood | FPJ

• Investigative arms of the government – suppress dissent and silence criticism, as well as cow down political opponents into submission.
• Sood was appointed AAP’s ‘brand ambassador’
• Similarly, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday conducted searches at premises linked to human rights activist and retired IAS officer Harsh Mander here in connection with an alleged money-laundering investigation.
• The 66-year-old Mander has authored several books on social justice and is a trenchant critic of the ruling dispensation.
• “The current raids by the ED and the IT department are to be viewed in this context, as part of a continuing chain of abuse of state institutions to threaten, intimidate and try to silence every critic of the present government,” a statement signed by more than 500 intellectuals and activists said.
• Every government in the past has used its powerful police, tax and other investigative agencies against its opponents
• The trend has accelerated in the party’s second term. In the run-up to polls in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in 2019, for instance, as many as 16 opposition leaders were raided by tax authorities, while only one BJP leader was investigated.
• “The dangerous trend of government agencies harassing and intimidating independent media must stop as it undermines our constitutional democracy. In July 2021, Income Tax raids were conducted at the offices of country’s leading newspaper Dainik Bhaskar, as well as a Lucknow based news channel, Bharat Samachar. These raids were conducted against the backdrop of some very critical coverage by both the news organisations on government’s handling of the pandemic,” the Editors Guild of India statement has noted.
• Agencies have failed to establish their case in only a handful of instances in a court of law – is a disservice to democracy.
• As the Delhi High Court noted recently while giving bail to student protesters charged with terrorist activity, “the state in its anxiety to suppress dissent has blurred the line between the constitutionally guaranteed ‘right to protest’ and ‘terrorist activity’”.

Empathy through education | TH

• India’s National Education Policy (2020) mentions social and emotional learning (SEL) as an important facet of education.
• SEL is the process of learning to recognise and manage emotions and navigate social situations effectively.
• Skills: communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity
• SEL is foundational for human development, building healthy relationships, having self and social awareness, solving problems, making responsible decisions, and academic learning.
• Key elements of SEL include cultivating empathy and theory of mind.
• ‘Empathy’ is the ability to understand another person’s emotions and be aware of why they might be feeling those emotions from their perspective.
• ‘Theory of mind’ is the ability to understand others’ intentions, knowledge and beliefs and recognise that those might be different from your own.
• Research finds that students with greater social skills and emotional regulation are more likely to have success.
• Neurobiologically, various brain regions such as the prefrontal and frontal cortices, amygdala, and superior temporal sulcus are involved in the cognitive mechanisms of SEL.
• Interestingly, scientists have proposed that the physiological and psychological factors of SEL are inherently linked.
• Synapse school seamlessly incorporates SEL into curricula through self-science classes, and places SEL centrally within the school culture.
  1. Application of SEL practices should be based on students’ socioeconomic backgrounds
  2. SEL strategies of caretakers and educators must align with one another
  3. Long-term success requires SEL to be based on scientific evidence

Chalo America | FPJ

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Washington for the first in-person summit of the four members of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, called the Quad.
• Following that, he will proceed to New York to address the high-level segment of the UN General Assembly.
• White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said besides the Indian-Pacific, the focus of the Quad would be on climate change, Covid-19 and the vaccination initiative of the group and cooperation in developing emerging technologies as well as cyberspace issues.
• In the east, we are being drawn into closer engagement with the US and its allies Japan and Australia.
• On the western side, the unstable Afghan scenario, with Pakistan in the driver’s seat at the moment, leaves India to fend for its interests by engaging with Iran and Russia, both of whom have a testy equation with the US.
• House Foreign Affairs Committee: Criticism of Pakistan and its duplicity in combating US antagonists was loud and clear
• This year, the theme of the UNGA session is: “Building resilience through hope to recover from Covid19, rebuilding sustainably, respond to needs of the planet, respect the rights of people and revitalise the United Nations”.
• India being a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council
• Overall, the visit should enable India to gauge international opinion on how the world has to gradually return to normal travel and interaction.

NEWS

• Charanjit Singh Channi to be sworn-in as Punjab CM today; Brahm Mohindra, Sukhjinder Randhawa appointed as Deputy CMs
• Schools to reopen in Madhya Pradesh & Jharkhand today
• FII pump in over Rs 16,000 crore in Indian capital market in September
• Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party retain majority in Parliamentary polls
• Union Minister Anurag Thakur to discuss promotion of sports in country with Sports Ministers of states, UTs
• Ministry of Commerce & Industry to celebrate week-long Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav from today
• More than 78 crore 58 lakh COVID vaccine doses provided by centre to states, UTs so far
• V Prez calls for creating safe & conducive environment for women to grow and attain their full potential
• PM Modi expresses anguish on passing away of Manorama Mohapatra
• HM Amit Shah releases 5 lakh gas connections for poor families of Madhya Pradesh
• France accuses Australia & US over new security pact
• Bangladesh to vaccinate students aged 12-17 with Pfizer Corona vaccine – Health Minister Zahid Maleque
• Myanmar court sets Oct 1 for Aung San Suu Kyi corruption trial
• Afghan embassies fate unclear; some even break contact with Taliban govt

Q.) Which of these grounded carriers announced it would resume domestic flying operations in the first quarter of next year?

1. SpiceJet
2. Jet Airways
3. GoAir
4. Air Sahara

Q.) Which country has said it will not allow the Islamic State group to establish a presence on the country’s border with Afghanistan?

1. Iran
2. Pakistan
3. Turkmenistan
4. Uzbekistan

Download Free PDF – Daily Hindu Editorial Analysis

Sharing is caring!